Sides agree on ballot language for Broomfield fracking ban

Voters will see the following wording when they decide on a fracking ban on the November ballot this year:

"Shall Broomfield's Home Rule Charter be amended for five years so as to prohibit the use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil, gas, or other hydrocarbons within the City and County of Broomfield and to prohibit the disposal or open pit storage of solid or liquid wastes created in connection with the hydraulic fracturing process?"

A citizens group that pushed to put a five-year ban on fracking on Broomfield's ballot and City Council have come to terms on how the ballot language will read. The agreement ends a court challenge filed by Our Broomfield, which said the initial language drafted by council did not reflect the intent or the reasoning behind the proposed ban.

Our Broomfield and City Council this week reached an out-of-court agreement on language for the initiative that will ask residents to ban the oil and gas drilling practice for five years.

The disputed wording of the ballot question this week went to Broomfield District Court, but Judge Patrick Murphy asked the two sides to meet in mediation on Tuesday. Lawyers on both sides drafted new ballot language, which both sides said is a fair representation of the issue.

Our Broomfield, which collected signatures to get the fracking ban on the ballot, formally contested the original ballot language by filing a complaint with the court on Aug. 19. The group said the wording was unfairly biased, violating state law. They want fracking banned in Broomfield for five years in order to further examine potential health and safety concerns.

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Broomfield, however, asked the court to dismiss the complaint, saying it had followed the correct procedures for drafting the ballot language and didn't need to change the wording.

Both sides dropped their opposition on Wednesday morning after lawyers on both sides drafted new wording meant to strike a compromise.

"We are pleased with the outcome and feel the revised title accurately and fairly represents the intent of the ballot measure," said Our Broomfield representative Nate Troup.

"We believe the revised language speaks to the intent of the ballot measure, which is and always has been to issue a five-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Broomfield to allow time for the completion of various Colorado-based studies on the impact of fracking on human health and the environment."

City Council and staff agreed the wording is a fair compromise. After an executive session Tuesday night, council voted to approve the new wording, which takes out mention of mineral owners' property rights and also omits wording that suggests fracking is a danger to health and safety. Those two topics were sore points for Our Broomfield and City Council, respectively.

The new wording is a more "middle ground" description of the issue that encompasses both sides, said Mayor Pro Tem Greg Stokes.

Find out more

• Broomfield posts updates on fracking issues on its website. Find the webpage by visiting broomfield.org and clicking "Government," then "Oil and Gas Development."

• For more information about pro-fracking group It's Our Broomfield, Too, call Linda Reynolds at 303-439-9108 or Rick Fernandez at 303-929-1463.

• For more information about Our Broomfield, the group proposing a ballot measure to ban fracking for five years, go to ourbroomfield.org.

City councilors wanted to draw up wording that encompassed the complex issue of fracking in Broomfield while representing concerned residents, he said.

"This was about protecting the process, not protecting some words on paper," he said.

Our Broomfield members said they will now begin a campaign to reach out to voters to convey their concerns about the potential health and environmental risks of fracking. Our Broomfield will have a booth at Broomfield Days on Sept. 21 and will hold a forum at the Broomfield Auditorium on Oct. 1, according to a news release from the group.

Meanwhile, Broomfield has approved a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Sovereign, an oil and gas operator that wants to drill in Broomfield despite Our Broomfield's opposition.

The MOU will allow Sovereign to drill 21 wells on four sites as long as the company complies with 35 of Broomfield's new, more stringent oil and gas drilling standards, which are among the strictest regulations between an oil and gas company and a city in Colorado.

Broomfield staff said the agreement's rules go beyond state rules for air quality, water quality, safety and other factors.

Though some residents said council should have waited until after the election to give any green light to oil and gas companies, City Council members said the approval was needed now to balance the rights of mineral rights owners with the concerns of residents who wanted more safety assurances about drilling practices.

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